1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a flexible manufacturing system. The flexible manufacturing system includes: a machining device that machines a workpiece; a pallet changer that exchanges pallets between a standby position and a machining position in the machining device; a pallet storage room that stores pallets to which workpieces have been attached; a loading station onto which a new workpiece is loaded; and a conveyor that conveys the pallets between the loading station, the pallet storage room, and the pallet changer.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-134900 (JP 2010-134900 A) describes an example of a conventional flexible manufacturing system that allows manufacturing of wide variety of products in small quantities. JP 2010-134900 A describes a technique of conveying pallets disposed in a loading station or a pallet storage room to a standby position of a pallet changer in a prescribed order.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-240474 (JP 2004-240474 A) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-6007 (JP 2002-6007 A) each describe that when an urgent item is loaded, a high priority is given to processing of the urgent item.
When a workpiece that is a super-urgent item is loaded, it is desirable that the workpiece be machined by a machining device immediately. However, according to the conventional technique, even if a high priority is given to conveyance of the super-urgent item by a conveyor, a workpiece that has already been conveyed to a standby position of a pallet changer is machined next by the machining device. That is, even if the super-urgent item is loaded, it is not possible to machine the super-urgent item prior to the workpiece present at the standby position of the pallet changer. As just described, there is still room for improvement in giving a higher priority to the machining of the super-urgent item.